23 Comments
Can I ask why there is no inversion in this sentence? If for example instead of "Till och med" there was "Nu", the sentence would have been "Nu striver barnet brev". Am I right? If so, why it's not the case with "Till och med"?
1878
"Till och med" is determining 'barnet', so these words is kept together. (Not just the mother and father, but 'even the child' is writing). But "Nu" is an adverb of time, which determines the whole sentence that follows: "Nu skriver barnet brev", "Nu" is emphasized in itself, therefore put at the start of the sentence, leading to the inversion.
- 122
"Even the child writes letter" got wrong, DL required "letters" for "brev". Only plural brev in this sentence?
- 887
I think in Swedish, it could either be the plural, or a sort of general usage, which Lundgren8 has written more about here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5824774
In English though, Even the child writes letter does not sound correct to me, which is probably why that translation isn't approved. What's your native language? Mine is obviously Swedish, but I think in English you'd either have to say a letter or letters (and a letter doesn't really fit the bill here either).
Yeah, it doesn't look right to me unless you say 'a letter' or 'letters'. Though 'a letter' is right if you translate it to "Even the child is writing a letter'
- 1878
But if it is only 'one' letter, we have to say "Barnet skriver ett brev", without 'ett' it is plural, or in a 'general' sense, which really implies more than one letter - that is my feeling.
Can someone please explain to me the semantic difference between "till och med" and "ens"? Tack!
- 887
The combination is inte ens, which means 'not even'. But you can't use ens without inte to mean 'even'.
Oh I see, it might be the same in my mother tongue now you mention it. Thanks!
Could somebody please explain the difference between the use of "och med" in the two sentences below?
"Hon tallar och med svenska" "Till och med barnet skriver brev"
What is confusing me is that the first sentence doesn't have "till" in front of the "och med" phrase.
- 887
You've just copied it wrong. You do need till in both cases: the first sentence is Hon talar till och med svenska. :)
So in my underdtsnding of English, "Even the child writes letters" and "The child even writes letters" mean different things. Are there different expressions in Swedish for the two sentences? (Sorry if this had been asked before.)
Yes. These two sentences ARE different in English. In #1the emphasis is on the child,writing. #2 the emphasis is on the fact of WHAT the child is writing , letters!
